Can't report on myself since i swam my first 25 at age 5, but i have seen numerous masters swimmers and a few tri-guys, all of whom were adult onset, learn to swim very creditable fly, back, and breast. Pretty much invariably they all say it makes their freestyle feel much easier, as you've seen:) Fly should become much easier after just a few days of practice, since you're using almost same muscles as in your free. Back and breast are a bit harder to master IMO b/c they require your arms/legs to produce power at distinctly diff angles from fly/free. Not to say fly is easy at all though but, in any event, swimming, kicking, and pulling all 4 strokes, plus adding any your paddles and/or fins, certainly creates a huge amount of variety in the pool:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

In an 18 yard pool, you can legally do underwater dolphin kick for virtually all if the fly leg. You just have to surface after 15 metres, or about 16 yards...

Eta. Most of the adult onset swimmers on my masters team stick to freestyle. I'm trying to convince them to branch out.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

for the pleasure of becoming a swimmer, new challenge, pleasure..... absolutly. In term of triathlon and performance related to freestyle, there is very little reason.

specificity is king!

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Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
Instargram

iMO there's nothing like that final leg in an IM. Turning over from breast to free..... it just always feels so fast!

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

My Fly:

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http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

I do a fair bit of IM and Fly training. Then again my slowest stroke (breast) is faster than most triathletes.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

It's nice that your lane lines attach to the wall where they are supposed to. On the bulkhead side of our pool, the attachment point is about 3 or 4 inches above the surface. Which means that I constantly scrape my hand on the lane lines in fly sets, and occasionally free too.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

New lane lines too. The old ones were getting rusty. Hooefully will race 400 IM Feb 21st. Not sure if I will do 200 Free or 200 Fly after.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

I started including fly into my swims a couple months ago and iit has helped a ton.

I was supposed to race yesterday in Fredericton, but couldn't make it. Had to be at home in the morning, and Freddy is a 4 hr drive, plus the forecast was terrible (and the weather channel was right). Couldn't risk getting stuck in NB for the night.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

+17 here.

Going to Edmonton tomorrow. Wearing red...

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

For Const. Wynn?

Before he joined the rcmp, he was a paramedic in Bridgewater NS. (That's where I work, for EMCI, which manages EHS operations). lots of folks here knew him well.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I read he was first on scene at SwissAir 111

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

I didn't read that, but he very well might have been. The crash site would be in his dispatch area.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Very nice, 8 spl in 25-m pool. It takes me about 9 in our 25-m outdoor pool, 8 in our 25-yd indoor pool. I really enjoy swimming fly and IM:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I started swimming in my late 20's. I'm 31 now. I am really liking the 200 IM (not saying I'm any good at it...). If you're remotely interested... join a masters group. NOT a triathlon swim group. Swim with the real swimmers, and learn from them. It really is a lot of fun, and your freestyle will thank you for it!

Funny how you say the fly is killer, and back stroke is hard because you're recovering from fly. The first 200 IM I swam was quite an experience. Adrenaline took me through the fly, although the last few strokes I was starting to fall apart a bit, but then you magically have all this time to breathe with back stroke, so I found I was almost hyperventilating, or at least, breathing very heavily. Going from back to breast, you take a huge breath, turn, and are under for quite a while for the first underwater pull and I thought my lungs were just going to EXPLODE!! Needless to say, I came up and made the loudest gasp for breathe, and my race was essentially shot at that point as my strokes were so short just so I could just catch my breath. But I finished up, and somehow through it all, managed to at least turn correctly and not to get DQ'd. This was at our clubs pre-Christmas time trial. The guy next to me was also swimming the 200 IM for the first time, and racked up an impressive 7 DQ's in the one event. We both got awards at our Christmas party for the race for our various accomplishments. All in good fun =)

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Long Chile was a silly place.

7 violations in just one race. Pretty sure that's some kind of a record!

And no one likes the back to breast transition. It never gets any less uncomfortable.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Almost no one like back to breast. I loved it because it meant the backstroke was over! Hate that stroke.

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Formerly TriBrad02

Me too! I suck at back and making that turn to breast brought me into my wheelhouse!

I stared swimming 4 years ago, now 40yo. I can't fly at all, back is okay (though I either stop way too early or smack my hand into the end of the pool). But I love breast stroke. I use it inbetween sets of free as a change up. I find it helps move different muscles and really lets me work on my glide and body position. Since I don't feel obliged to get to the other end of the pool any fast, I like the challenge of seeing how few strokes I can do with it while keeping a nice body position. And yeah, sometime I try to see how fast I can go as well.

As I end up in the middle to the back of the swim portion of events, I like having a few strokes in hand in case things start getting rough or I get caught behind slower swimmers.

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Ian

I started swimming 4 years ago (I'm now 32)... I was really bad.

I started to move up in the lanes and now I'm swimming with the faster moms (I'm a guy). Most of them swim IM strokes, so last year I started to pick those up, too. It was a REALLY hard year learning those strokes and trying to keep up, but it's paid off. I'm an ok fly-er, my breastroke keeps up with most of them, my backstroke is still shit, but my freestyle has improved a ton. I think part of that is that I'm now swimming the sets in the way that they were intended, and get to rest the freestyle muscles while we're swimming some of the other strokes. It's also nice to be able to break up the flutter kick on kick sets with another kick.... I only JUST learned how to whip and dolphin kick.

So, yeah.... I'd recommend learning the other strokes. I think it's helped me become a more balanced swimmer. It gives me a little more variety in the pool... and I think it's helped my overall swimming. However, the learning phase is REALLY tough.... you'll have to gut it out through a lot of sets. Much more than you would normally. So I wouldn't do it in the spring as you're gearing up for a tri season.

Good luck!

Like jonnyo said, specificity is king and your times seem fast enough to me to work on specificity rather than broadening your experience.

IMO for MOP and beginners, it's worthwhile learning the other strokes for several reasons. It's helpful to have a "bail out" stroke. When it's not working in the OW, the ability to do a fair breaststroke or backstroke can be life saving and improve performance. My preference is breaststroke for sighting and the breaststroke kick discourages people from swimming over you. Backstroke may give you even more relief but you can't see and someone will probably row over and ask if you need help. You don't seem to fall into that category though.

There does seem to be some positive crossover with even some knowledge of the other strokes. While many think of freestyle as left, right, left, right, it seems that some really good freestylers have some wave like undulation in their body similar to breaststroke and fly. Backstroke seems to benefit the kick and the backward rotation of the shoulders helps to offset the forward rotation of free.

If I were you, and I wish I were as fast as you, I'd do intervals of 50-100 free and breakup those intervals by doing the other strokes when failing adaption sets in. You might notice something you like while recovering.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

My preference is breaststroke for sighting and the breaststroke kick discourages people from swimming over you.

Or swimming around you. Or anywhere near you. Or when you feel the need just to kick someone in the head or crotch.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

The problem with Breastroking in a race is that most people drop their legs while doing it. When a faster swimmer comes up from behind they don't see them until they bump into their back. Then the breastroker mistakenly thinks they are being run over on purpose.

Trust me, it's a lot easier to go around someone than to go over them. If I'm passing someone I want no contact at all.

jaretj